Misty May-Treanor & Kerri Walsh: The Olympians

"We have seen the future. It wears a bikini." That's what one thunderstruck reporter wrote after Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor, two California girls, vanquished the Chinese beach volleyball team to win Olympic gold in Beijing.

The women met as teenagers, when Walsh asked her idol, May, for an autograph. In 2001 they decided to team up, and since then they have not only reached the top of the sport—they've taken it to a new level. Walsh, 30, and May-Treanor, 31, are the only beach volleyball players to win back-to-back gold medals, in Athens and Beijing, and did so without losing a single set. They also made history by racking up 112 straight wins. Says Marjorie A. Snyder, Ph.D., of the Women's Sports Foundation: "Kerri and Misty are in that echelon of all-time great athletes."

The sports elite are fans too. "[WNBA star] Lisa Leslie said how inspired she was watching us," says Walsh. "And the other day on the beach, I heard someone chanting, U-S-A! U-S-A!' It was [soccer great] Mia Hamm. To have these strong women cheering you on is so cool."

How do they do it? "Kerri and I have the mind-set that we will win," says May-Treanor. Actually being friends helps too: After their victory in Beijing, Walsh says, "we were suddenly doing 10-year-old-girl things—rolling in the sand. The most important thing was to get that hug and hold on to each other—because we did it."